Poetry Explication Assignment due in 36 hours

The Assignment: 

· Choose two (2) poems from the poetry selections by Emily Dickinson located in this module.

· Write an un-researched explication of each poem (two total).

· Explications should be 1½ --2 pages each.

· Follow the Style Rules/Guidelines and MLA documentation for appropriate formatting 

About Explication:

What is explication? Explication is the unraveling of a poem (or story or play), basically explaining the poem word by word, line by line, or stanza by stanza. In unfolding the poem, you should address any literary devices you see: simile and metaphor, allusion, rhyme, rhythm, repetition, onomatopoeia, form (if applicable), and other techniques. How do these all contribute to the overall message of the poem? 

An explication is a way for you to slow down and focus on the detail. Often, a poem that you find confusing will make sense once you take some time to examine it piece by piece. The fist place to begin, always, is the title. What do you expect from the title? Does the poem deliver this? How? If it surprises you, why might the author have chosen this title? Or, is the title ironic, and if so, how does irony change the meaning of the poem? These are just a few questions you might ask yourself. 

If you use any secondary sources, including biographical material, you must cite them according to MLA and include a Works Cited page. However, you will not use any secondary sources in this paper.

Introduction: Include title (in quotation marks), author, dates, brief background of the author if necessary and relevant, a brief summary of the plot (situation), or literal level of the poem, and your thesis, which probably will mention two or three techniques the poet uses to convey his/her argument (theme). The thesis will include what you believe to be that argument.

Body Paragraphs: Systematically go through the poem showing the techniques stated in your thesis and showing how they relate to the poet’s argument. Brief quotes should be incorporated into your sentences to clarify your point. Do not, under any circumstance, quote the entire poem within the paper. If you quote three or fewer lines, an inline quote, you should introduce the quote with a signal phrase, and then quote the section of the poem, indicating line breaks with a “/” and stanza breaks with a “//”. To quote more than three lines, use a block quote. In either case, follow the quote with a parenthetical reference of the line number(s). And then, make sure that you follow the quote with an analysis of the quote. 

Conclusion: Here you pull the paper together and reaffirm your thesis. You could discuss how the poem relates to real life and/or use this paragraph to disagree with the poet’s argument if you wish. But in doing so Do not use first person to argue or agree! All analysis needs to be in third person, objective voice. Thus, instead of saying “I think that Frost ignores the religious aspect…” or “ Frost really relates to my going to the woods, myself…” you would instead say “Frost ignores the religious aspect…” or “Frost’s experience relates to the real experience of visiting the woods…” 

Style: In addition to the usual style suggestions, you should also be very careful about using the word “I” or “me,” as in “I believe” or “It is my opinion.” These are useless phrases that serve only to cast doubt on your argument. Keep your sentences focused on your subject, the poem itself. In addition, as a college-level writing, be sure that your sentence structure is varied and that you take some care, if necessary, to combine short sentences to avoid repetition and make sure that one sentence builds upon the previous ones. Include transitions where appropriate to avoid jumping quickly from one topic to the next. 

Additional Style Tips: While the explication tends to be a chronological progression, consider the organization of the paper. How can you group your observations? This, as any other formal paper, should be a multiple-draft project where your initial observations are organized into main points, and these main points are then focused with a thesis in the intro, with topic sentences in the body paragraphs, and finished with a conclusion. 

Suggestions for Writing About the Genre of Poetry

The kinds of question you can usefully ask about a poem depend very much on the individual poem. Here is a list of general questions. Some of them will apply to the poem (or poems) you decide to write about in this course. After carefully reading the poem(s) aloud, you will know which ones are useful to you.

1. WHAT IS THE POEM ABOUT? What is the theme of the poem? Is it similar in subject or theme to other poems you have studied? Could it be compared to/with them?

2. WHO IS THE SPEAKER OF THE POEM? Is the speaker addressing a particular person (auditor)? On what occasion?

3. WHAT IS THE TONE OF THE POEM? Is it consistent or does it change in the course of the poem? 

4. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE LANGUAGE OF THE POEM? Is it figurative or literal? Is the poet using figures of speech? What kinds and to what effect? Does the poem contain images? Can the poem be read in more than one way? 

5. DOES THE POEM CONTAIN RHYMES? If so, what is the rhyme scheme? Are lines end-stopped or enjambed? How does the rhyme serve to emphasize the meaning? The connections between certain words? What other notable features are there about the sound of the poem? 

6. IS THE POEM WRITTEN IN METRE? If so, what metre? Is it regular or irregular? What is its effect? What is the effect of any irregularities? Is there more than one way to scan the poem? What different meanings to these scansions suggest? 

7. DOES THE POEM CONTAIN ANY LITERARY ALLUSIONS? Is it influenced by earlier poems? Can it be compared to other poems you have read by the same poet or different poets? 

 Read the following poems by Emily Dickinson: #49, #241, #249, #258, #280, #288, #465, #585, #712, #986,